Regional agricultural governance in peri-urban and rural South Australia: strategies to improve multifunctionality

Historically, agricultural policy in Australia has focused on maximising the economic productivity and efficiency of the sector. The issues that have arisen from this governance focus are manyfold. In this study, we illustrate the regional disparity and implications for agricultural sustainability caused by such a policy model. We surveyed farmers in two South Australian case study regions, the adjoining peri-urban Barossa-Light region, and the rural area of Loxton. It was found that respondents from Loxton had larger properties, saw more benefits from government support for agriculture, and were more likely to prioritise support for their local community and increases in productivity. Respondents from Barossa-Light were more concerned about risks of urban encroachment, prioritised keeping their farms in their families, and were generally more concerned about government support. These results highlight the complexity involved with applying appropriate government support mechanisms across a diverse industry such as agriculture, with various regional sustainability issues driving respondent priorities. We also suggest that regional variation will require explicit planning which aims for heterogeneous goals and that educational and cooperative pursuits may help to increase the capacity of the land managers in the case study regions. These suggestions have broader implications for other regions where agricultural diversity complicates policy to support the industry within historically productivist agricultural regimes.Simon J. Fielke, Douglas K. Bardsle

Revealing power dynamics and staging conflicts in agricultural system transitions : Case studies of innovation platforms in New Zealand

Innovation platforms (IPs) that support agricultural innovation to enable transition processes towards more sustainable agriculture provide a space where conflicts of interest among actors in the existing agricultural system (the so called incumbent regime) may play out. Sometimes these conflicts over how actors will benefit from an action are not revealed until actors are brought together. However, a barrier to change occurs when IP actors use their existing power to mobilise resources to influence if and how individual and collective interests are aligned. In the context of agricultural innovation and transitions, this paper uses the power in transitions framework (Avelino and Wittmayer, 2016), along with analytical perspectives on conflicts and role perceptions, to understand how consciously staging or revealing conflicts of interest among IP actors changed role perceptions and power relations among these actors. The paper explores this topic in two IPs addressing agricultural production and sustainability challenges in New Zealand's agricultural sector. Conflicts were staged in IPs when one group of actors mobilised resources that enabled them to move existing power relations from one-sided, to synergistic or a mutual dependency. This enabled conflicts to be acknowledged and solved. In contrast, conflicts were not staged when actors mobilised resources to maintain antagonostic power relations. Our cases demontrate that staging conflicts to change actors' role perceptions is an important intermediary step to forming new power relations in the agricultural system. Our findings highlight the need for IP theory to conceptualise power relations in IPs as context specific, dynamic and a force shaping outcomes, rather than solely a force exerted by actors in the incumbent regime over IP actors.</p

Animal welfare and other ethical implications of precision livestock technology

In this commentary, we explore the risks and challenges associated with Precision Livestock Farming technologies based on an online workshop with over 70 international animal welfare experts, policy-makers, NGO, students, farmers and industry staff

Multifunctional agricultural transition: essential for local diversity in a globalised world

The concept of multifunctional agriculture has been theoretically influential as the consequences of historically productivist agri-food systems continue to be felt. In this chapter two examples of multifunctionality, policy driven and bottom-up, are used to explain that the term can be conceptualised in different ways. Policy mechanisms to increase the multifunctionality of European agricultural practice are highlighted as having benefits in terms of affecting landholder decision-making. Alternative food networks in Australia, farmers’ markets in particular, are used as an example of producers themselves initiating futures that incorporate multifunctional ideals and using these principles to market their produce in innovative ways. While both forms of multifunctionality face challenges, the concept of multifunctional agricultural practice will continue to impact land management decisions and has significant potential to be used as a means to add value to traditional food and fibre production.Simon J. Fielk

A brief political history of South Australian agriculture

This paper aims to explain why South Australian agricultural land use is focused on continually increasing productivity, when the majority of produce is exported, at the long-term expense of agriculturally-based communities and the environment. A historical analysis of literature relevant to the agricultural development of South Australia is used chronologically to report aspects of the industry that continue to cause concerns in the present day. The historically dominant capitalist socio-economic system and ‘anthropocentric’ world views of farmers, politicians, and key stakeholders have resulted in detrimental social, environmental and political outcomes. Although recognition of the environmental impacts of agricultural land use has increased dramatically since the 1980s, conventional productivist, export oriented farming still dominates the South Australian landscape. A combination of market oriented initiatives and concerned producers are, however, contributing to increasing the recognition of the environmental and social outcomes of agricultural practice and it is argued here that South Australia has the opportunity to value multifunctional land use more explicitly via innovative policy.Simon J. Fielke and Douglas K. Bardsle

The 1971 Flotation of the Mark and the Hedging of Commercial Transactions Between the United States and Germany: Experiences of Selected U.S Non-Banking Enterprises

According to a questionnaire survey, the forward-exchange market easily accommodated the demand of U.S. firms for forward cover of transactions with German firms during the 1971 floatation of the mark.. The U.S. firms employed a variety of hedging techniques.The recent experiments with quasi-floating exchange rates have produced new evidence on some old questions about exchange-rate flexibility. One of these questions is whether substantial flexibility disrupts international trade by stimulating more demand for forward-exchange cover than the market can easily satisfy.1For affirmative answers to this question, see the following: H.S. Houthakker, “Exchange Rate Adjustment,” in U.S. Congress, Subcommittee of the Joint Economic Committee, Factors Affecting the United States Balance of Payments, 87th Cong., 2d. sess., Washington, 1962, pp. 292–93: Robert V. Rossa in The Balance of Payments: Free Versus Fixed Exchange Rates, by Milton Friedman and Robert V. Rossa (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1967), pp. 39–41; and Giuliano Pelli, “Why I Am Not in Favor of Greater Flexibility of Exchange Rates,” in Approaches to Greater Flexibility of Exchange Rates, ed. by Geroge N. Halm (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1970), pp. 203–08. Those who answer this question in the affirmative usually reason along the following lines. Substantial exchange-rate flexibility leads business management to expect greater exchange-rate variations. Therefore, management seeks to cover more of its foreign-exchange explosure (i.e., seeks to “insure” against the greater exchange rate risk by purchasing or selling foreign currency forward. © 1973 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1973) 4, 43–59

The importance of farmer education in South Australia

Abstract not availableSimon J. Fielke, Douglas K. Bardsle

Role of placenta: development and function

J.S. Robinson, I.C. McMillen, S. Fielke, L. Evans, F. Lok and J.A. Owen